Rotel RX-830 Receiver

This little gem was found today with a blown fuse on the speaker fuse panel.

Rotel made a few receivers and this one is basically a well revered RA-820BX amp with a tuner.

In the Early 80's the Rotel RA-820BX and RA-840BX received many accolades in the budget audiophile category, I know as I still have a RA-840BX amp.

A little clean up and a spray of DeOxit in the pots and switched has it singing. I will session this amp out with both the Mission 700 Leading Edge and the B&W DM100.

Conservatively rated at 20 Watts per channel, Rotel built these to triple their output into 2 ohms. Rotel is an English Japanese company with English design from B&W that manufactured their products in Taiwan.

Update: This little receiver matches really well with the Mission 700 Leading Edge speakers, Why?

The Mission's are forward in their mid range where as the Rotel is a little recessed in that area. The Rotel has a solid bottom end and nice controlled high end, which lends to the characteristics of the Mission speakers.

More so than the B&W DM100's and the B&W D5's.

Together the Rotel and Mission speakers brings about the best in musical attack, clarity and excitement that an inexpensive system should.

JVC R-S33 Receiver

I always liked the JVC R-S33 receiver since I was a kid and heard it for the first time.

This 40 watt per channel Super-A receiver was second to the TOTL and has great aesthetics, just before the launch of the Black Plastic Crap (BPC) era.

This unit produces a nice clean sound with an open sound stage and plenty of power to spare. At the time "A" class hybrid amps were a bit of a trend in this era with Techics having a Super AA technology and Luxman having a Duo B circuit.

According to the Vintage Knob site the Super A circuit works by the following.

 Super-A works with an Active Bias Circuit, strapped across the input of the power stage : this ABC controls the amount of bias following the output level's variation.
By feeding them sinusoidally-varying reverse bias during their half-cycles of non-conductivity, output transistors never switch off. No switching distortion as in normal Class B, no useless heat production as in Class A.

 I love the mix of analog with the L.E.D. power output meters and tuning controls.

The looks and sound is far superior to the generation receiver prior to the this one the JVC JR-S300 which was featured on this blog a few months ago.

Here is the ad for the JVC R-S33.

B&W DM100i Speakers

Another pair of speakers that made it my way was this pair of B&W DM100i speakers. Like the Mission 700 Leading Edge speakers, These are about the same size with a 6 1/2 inch woofer and a 25mm dome tweeter. The crossover is much more sophisticated that the Mission as is the build quality. The bass goes a bit lower and the mid range is recessed from the Mission's and the highs are clearer.

To say these speakers fall into the British polite category, well these do. They can play for hours without listener fatigue. I will try them against the B&W D5's to see how much technology had changed over 20 years.

This is a nice polite, well behaved speaker suitable for smaller, near field listening. The sound is well balanced and the imaging is spot on. These remind me of Paradigm 3se Mini's but without as much bass due to the acoustic suspension design.

Mission 700 Leading Edge Speakers

I picked up another pair of Mission speakers this week, a pair of 700 Leading Edge.

These are smaller a than the original Mission 700's I had and the Mission 700S model also.

This pair is much smaller and has the 7 inch woofer from the Mission Model 70 and the Vifa D19 tweeter.

The speaker is acoustically suspended and is much smaller than the original 700's, yet larger than the Model 70.

I opted to re cap the crossover with a polyester film cap with the same value. It was a pretty easy operation. I left the old cap in place as it was well glued in.

The sound is typical Mission, very alive and forward. The mid range is detailed and the mid and highs surround you and if you are right there in the music. Unlike sitting in a seat with a concert in front of you.

Mission speakers from the end of this era are exciting speakers to listen to. They are not as polite as other British loud speakers. Almost like British sound meets JBL.

These speakers remind me of the Model 70 with more bass due to a larger cabinet. These are great budget HiFi speakers that can light up any room with a great sound stage.

I did pair these with the Realistic STA-84 but found that the mid range was to dominant as this receiver is very detailed in the mid range. I was happier to listen to these speakers  with a recently acquired JVC R-S33 receiver, it was matched up way nicer.

Baby Advent Speakers

I just finished re foaming a pair of Baby Advents for a friend. These are the smallest in the line up of Advents with a 6 1/2 woofer and a 2 inch cone tweeter.

No a bad sounding little speaker for the size but I did find the bass a little boomy for it's size. Very nice in the mid range and high end and the over all imaging was pleasant.

Realistic System Eleven

I came across a Realistic System Eleven today that is from circa 1982. This system would have cost $520 back in the 80's. The catalog even showcased this system on the cover that year labeled as the "Dream System".

The system fires up but needs a good cleaning, the foams are in good condition.

This is the big brother of the System Seven that I had a few years back.

It consist of a pair of Minimus 11 speakers and the STA-111 Receiver rated at 30 watts per channel.

Pretty cool little system from Radio Shack in the final years of making some hip products.

The STA-111 receiver subsequently got a new volume pot, a good De-Oxit could not get the balance worked out.

Camber 2.5 Speakers

This wonderful pair of Camber 2.5 speakers showed up today, this is the second time have owned a pair of Camber speakers. The first pair was a set of Camber 3.5's prior to starting this blog. The bigger brother with 8" woofers.

Camber 2.5's are a 2 way speakers with an 6.5" woofer and a Vifa T-27D tweeter, these are built to rival perhaps Paradigm 7SE's, if not at least the 5Se in the early to mid 80's. They may even compete against the Mission speaker line during that time.

These speakers sound absolutely wonderful, the ported design compliments the 6.5" woofer as the bass is tight and full. In fact I am in awe at how much bass is coming from the diminutive woofer. The mid range is a little laid back but extremely smooth and the Vifa tweeters hit all the highs without any hints brashness, these Vifa tweeters are good.

The build quality of the cabinets and mid bass driver is outstanding. The Bextrene woofer has rubber surrounds that will last for years.

I am super excited to have these speakers again in the rotation as they look as good as they sound.

Any time Camber or Rega Camber speakers appear in a thrift store or Craigslist they are well worth picking up, they are that good.

These Camber speakers remind me of the Paradigm Control Monitors that graced my presence.